Westcott (A) – OCA Div 3

Westcott were an unknown quantity to us, having dropped out of Division Two the previous year, and therefore finished fully 15 places above us in the 'ladder' in 2012. The verdict from Cairns Fudge whom a couple of our players had seen over the week suggested the Westcott team had some hard hitting batsmen who could be very dangerous. This ultimately proved to be an accurate report as we were to discover. First things first though, after negotiating the lengthy journey to Buckinghamshire (despite playing in an Oxfordshire league game - something NiB…continue reading →

Great Horwood (A) – OCA Div 4

An away trip known to us after last year, but in drastically different conditions, we rolled up in the scorching heat and did some early team-building exercises with a football on Great Horwood's unique ground with its characteristic slope and ridge on one side. Colin lost the toss as has become his standard for this year, so we found ourselves batting first again. For the first time in a long while we were entering a match without our standard opening pair, so Colin and Ryan took the job. Colin played some good shots…continue reading →

East & West Hendred (A) – Friendly

Finally Wantage were able to get a cricket match in after the recent monsoons, and we were privileged to have a guest Sunday star in NiB, playing in order to get some needed time in the middle after our second Saturday match in a row was cancelled. That said, we had still struggled to ten players even with Nick so it was a nice surprise when we got a huge stroke of luck early in the game. Barry managed to tip the ball on the stumps after the other opener had smashed the…continue reading →

Cold Ash – Away – Friendly – Lost

The day didn’t start well, as Steve neglected to tell everyone that Cold Ash had an Astroturf pitch only. This unfortunately meant that a lot of the team had to spend the opening twenty minutes of the game removing the studs from their boots. This was an inauspicious start which was not improved by a sterling opening partnership of two balls, no runs and one wicket as O.T.Bix fell in the first over. Mongo soon followed, and Ian and Ben then added a fairly brisk 60, including some exciting pulls by Ben, before…continue reading →